TEEN BOSS
Tracie had always been a strong-willed girl. We'd had our share of clashes over the years, like any mother and daughter. But that horrifying video of what I did to her changed everything. Now, I had less of a teenage stepdaughter, and more of an in-house drill sergeant.
Every morning, she would come in my bedroom at six o'clock sharp and flip on the bright overhead light. She'd say in a stern voice, "Wake up, Mom. You've got five minutes to get downstairs. You're going to do fifteen minutes on the treadmill again today, faster than yesterday. Tomorrow we're going up to twenty."
After my morning workout, she'd order me to shower, dress, and do my hair and makeup. She said, "For months I couldn't have any friends over here because you were always drunk and looked a mess. From now on, if anyone comes over, you and the house will look respectable."
Before she left for school each day, my daughter gave me a list of tasks to keep me busy until she got home. She had me cleaning the house from the basement to the garage; doing the laundry, grocery shopping, and yard work; picking up her room (which was always a mess!); scrubbing the tiles in the shower and kitchen; paying bills, changing bed sheets, looking for a new job, and making dinner every evening. The most important task, though, was always the same:
stay sober.
I'll tell you, the first few days were rough! I'm pretty sure I was going through alcohol withdrawal, which really woke me up to how bad my drinking had gotten. Besides the shakes and nausea, I was constantly nervous.
I didn't know if the nervousness was a side-effect of quitting booze or from the blackmail. Probably both. Tracie accepted no excuses. She kept me hopping non-stop.
When I was drinking, I didn't even know what day it was, but now I watched the clock like a hawk. Each day, I was desperate to have everything in order before my stepdaughter got home from school. My heart would pound between two forty-five and three o'clock, when one of Tracie's friends' cars pulled up in the driveway to drop her off.
And when she entered the house, the first thing she did was look hard into my eyes to see if I appeared sober, then put her nose to my face and smell my breath to make sure there was no alcohol on it. Then she checked to make sure I had done all my assigned tasks for the day. She kept the checklist on her phone. She wasn't fooling around.
Despite how sick I felt at the beginning, I didn't dare fool around either. I was seriously scared of my daughter.
After a week or so, I was no longer shaky or nauseous, and I felt I had performed my assigned tasks well. But while we sat together one night eating the dinner I had made, I was still nervous. I said, "So Tracie, I'm doing so much better. Honestly, you really helped me by forcing me to get myself back together."
She stared at me, chewing her food with an unreadable poker face.
I swallowed and said, "So, um, thanks, honey. I'm really feeling pretty good, so... Shouldn't we get rid of that video?"
She laughed. "Oh Mom, we've barely gotten started."
That weekend, my hard-nosed teenage boss made me take her to her favorite stores to buy her clothes, shoes, makeup, and whatever else she wanted. The most expensive item was her new phone. She insisted on the model with the best camera.
She probably would have asked for more, except she knew that all those purchases were going straight onto a credit card until I found a job.
MOTHER'S DAY WORKOUT
In addition to the treadmill "warm-up" Tracie put me through first thing every morning, she started me as her workout partner in the evenings. Four days a week, either right after school or sometime after dinner, she took me down to the basement.
My stepdaughter had been working out with various sports teams for years, so she had no problem directing me through push-ups, lunges, planking, sit-ups, squats, weights and everything else you could think of. It was hard! And there was no escaping it, because Tracie exercised right beside me.
I had been a little bit sporty in my younger years, but never so much as her, and it had been a long time for me. Whatever I was able to do, my athlete daughter did ten times as much. She was a good coach, though. She was patient with me and satisfied as long as I gave a real effort.
One Sunday evening after dinner, I got ready for our workout. I put on sweatpants and an old t-shirt like I usually wore for my new exercise regimen.
Tracie popped into my room and said, "Nope, nope. Enough of looking like a shlub, Mom, even for workouts."
"Well, honey, I'm just going to get all sweaty. And I don't really have anything else."
"Do you think I forgot what day it is?"
I smiled and bit my lip.
She said, "Happy Mother's Day!" She handed me a gift-wrapped box and gave me a big hug.
Of course I loved it, and hugged her back. But I felt a pang of guilt. "Thank you, angel. The wrapping paper is so pretty. But I don't deserve much, after forgetting your birthday."
"Well, anyway, I got you some things. Check it out." She watched me open my present. Inside were several small pieces of material.
"Thank you so much, sweetheart. What are these?"
"A couple sports bras, a tank top, and some bike shorts." She happily spread them out on my bed.
"Those are for me?" I asked.
"Duh! For Mother's Day."
"Oh, kitten, this is so thoughtful of you. But... that stuff is for, like, young girls like you, isn't it?"
My daughter rolled her eyes. "Mom, quit acting like you're some old, fat hag. You have a good body and you need to start acting like it. Now try these on. Let's make sure they fit."
"Thank you so much, Tracie, but you don't need to spend money on all this."
"Well, I used your credit card."
I didn't dare object. Tracie had taken control of my credit card as much as she had taken control of the rest of my life. But after that first flurry of shopping for her, she hadn't used it for anything frivolous. It touched me that the exception she made was a gift for me.
I said, "This is very nice, baby. But honestly, I don't care what I look like in the basement."
"Well, Mom, I care. I'm the one who has to look at you, and I want you looking nice. You're not going to start giving me attitude about this, right?" She pointed at the new things on the bed. The look in her eyes was dead serious. She wasn't asking me to try them on. She was telling me.
"No, no, it's fine. I'll try them on. Thanks for getting them. That was very sweet of you." I swallowed nervously as Tracie laid out the bike shorts, tank top, and sports bra she wanted me to wear. I wondered how I was even going to get into those tiny things.
I pulled off my baggy sweatpants and picked up the tiny shorts.
I had never worn bike shorts before. I said, "You sure these are a good size for me? They're so small."
"Yeah, but they're very stretchy," Tracie said. I noticed she was looking at my legs. "And they're supposed to be kind of tight, you know, like the compression shorts we wear for volleyball. Put them on."
With some effort, I tugged the shorts up my legs. They certainly did compress things!
She asked, "They feel good?"
"Yeah, I guess." I straightened the waist band. "Pretty snug."
"They look good. Nice booty, Mom."